Discretionary Replacement For 2005 Accord At 105,000 Miles ?

it's as "necessary" as the inconvenience of it breaking and you having to tow the vehicle to a shop. and if it's an interference engine, spending kilodollars getting that engine fixed/replaced.

how "really required" is replacing this belt?

how about this one?

so, to answer your question, no, belts cannot be inspected.

how much is gasoline these days? old plugs don't light the gas mix as well and give lower economy. apart form the reliability, emissions, and cat replacement issues of course.

i think the thing that most obviously needs replacing is this ownership attitude. apart from the issues of poor math not being able to figure out that repair is much cheaper than purchase and depreciation of a new vehicle, if you don't want the responsibility of owning a reliable vehicle that won't strand you, or worse, cause an accident in which others are injured, you need to take the maintenance seriously. if you don't want to do that, take the bus.

Bob wrote in news:irjfji$k66$ snipped-for-privacy@dont-email.me:

If you're only keeping the car for a year or two, you can afford to cheap-out and skip the water pump. The belt(s) will be about $400-$800, depending on 4 or V6, and depending on aftermarket or OEM.

At your mileage, very necessary; you're due for a replacement. You've got about a 50% chance of valves hitting pistons should the timing belt slip or break, and that would add about a grand to the (then mandatory!) belt change.

That said, you've also got about a 50-50 chance of making it through the next two years with no breakage at all.

Nope. The carcass weakens internally, and you can't see that in a visual inspection.

At 105K, you're due for a replacement. But if you're only keeping the car for a year or two, leave them alone and expect to possibly have an unhappy next-owner.

That depends completely on what has already been done already. Or not been done, given the evidently lackadaisical approach to maintenance indicated here.

Your type is the primary reason I hate used cars: used cars show the results of the previous owner's, "Awww, do I HAVE to?" maintenance regimen.

Check independent shops. Doesn't have to be BIG $$. Just has to be done right.

Necessary. Inspection won't show anything. Just do it.

And then keep the car longer than just another year.

Either that, or dump the car now--to someone who will offer $1000 less because he knows HE'LL have to do the timing belt.

I remember my 92 Civic at 120K miles, a bunch of stuff just came up all at once. None of it was unexpected, but that didn't lessen the pain of $1400 going out the door inside a very short period of time. But so be it--cars cost money, and things need replaced now and again. Every mile has a cost associated with it. Think of it that way, and none of this will hurt.

Oh--and you'll also drive a LOT less, especially with $4 gas, when you start seeing dimes or quarters fly out the window every time the odometer ticks another mile.

$4 gas. Let's think about that. My wife's 02 Odyssey gets 15mpg with her tooling around town. Four dollars for 15 miles. That's almost 27 cents PER MILE--JUST for gasoline.

Add in tires, oil, exhaust, water pump, timing belt, spark plugs, valve adjustment...everything that wears with every mile you drive. How easy is it to think of 30 or more cents being spent EVERY time the odometer clicks over a SINGLE MILE?

Start thinking like that, in the real world, and you'll realize how expensive even the cheapest car is just to drive.

but...but...don't you UNDERSTAND? Life is supposed to be like a REFRIGERATOR--an APPLIANCE that needs NOTHING, it just IS. Open the door, it's cold. You don't have to WORK at making it go! Set it and FORGET it!

A 4 cylinder Honda (or Toyota) is the least pain in the ass way to own transportation, and people still bitch about having to deal with it. Bah.

i much prefer used cars that have been neglected vs. used cars that have been "maintained" by idiots. no kidding, i've just done some engine/transmission work on my "new" 89 civic, and some of the stuff i've found just makes you cringe.

1. parking brake cable return spring messed up. how exactly you can do this i'm not sure, but it was mangled so bad, the brake was always dragging because it wouldn't return at all.
2. the atf coolant line had been pinched shut!!! not the rubber hose, the steel outlet pipe coming from the banjo. i'm not exactly sure how it would have been possible to do this accidentally since it's thick wall and fairly robust and it doesn't crush easily with hose pliers. it was also smushed completely closed - not just dented. the only thing i can think of, since it seemed to had been done so carefully, is a dodgy transmission shop messing it up deliberately in an attempt to sell a new transmission to its non-technical previous lady owner - it caused the pressure to drop so it would flare between 2 & 3 so "the transmission's about to go - you need to replace it". i ended up having to replace the whole pipe/banjo unit because it was just too badly damaged and broke apart trying to re-open it. [transmission operation returned to normal afterwards, fortunately].
3. the cabin heater's outlet pipe had been pinched shut just like the atf pipe. again, not just a little bit closed, completely smushed shut. this one i managed to re-open since it's copper and thus more ductile, but the pipe is now in poor shape, and i suspect is going to leak. if so, it means replacing the heater core, which means taking out the dash and the front controls - many hours of work.

yeah, just give me a neglected used car - you just have to do a bunch of maintenance. incompetently/maliciously "repaired" takes many more hours of remedial /before/ you can maintain it.

I bought a house like that.

Hint: when the neighbors ALL talk about "he's always working on the house," that's code for "he's always screwing things up and then going back to try to unscrew them up but screwing them up differently".

jim beam wrote in news:raqdnUpk8pYm50PQnZ2dnUVZ snipped-for-privacy@speakeasy.net:

Yeah, I hear ya.

I then amend my lament to include neglected servicing AND inept servicing. Both cause major headaches, just for different reasons.

All of which is why used cars generally are such a minefield and a headache.

used cars are fine. if you know what you're doing and/or use a decent shop to keep it running. otherwise, you're stuck with the crap shoot of incompetence in maintenance, even if the car is nearly new. a buddy of mine got ripped for a whole new braking system - disks, drums, master cylinder, calipers and rear pistons. oh, and pads/shoes. the car was about 3 years old and ~30k miles. san francisco honda.

I bought my '94 Accord from a bank that reposessed it. The car had 36 K miles at the time and a mechanic checked it before I signed off on it. I couldn't have a better car even if I bought it new. I feel I have a better chance to avoid a lemon in used car if I buy a reposessed one than from the original owner. That way at least I have a pretty good chance that the car is not being sold because something is wrong with it. Just my superstition, I guess.

Just to indicate that each case is different, I put a bid in on a Ferrari 308 that was repossessed. The bank did not care and wanted to get rid of it as soon as possible. I took pics all over and drove to the nearest factory Ferrari manager. He spent some time with me, and when he was finished said I could get the car for $20K, then would have to spend another $20K to bring it back (the owner deferred all maintenance) and would have a $30K car.

A properly maintained Accord should last 250K miles.

I just had a 110K timing belt plus 110K service on a civic. It was about double normal service. They charged 3.5 hours of labor for the timing belt part and 1.5 for the other portion, plus parts.

My dealer lists all the 10xK service prices for the various models on big wall chart. I noticed a big bump at 105K or 110K for every model.

Mine at 298K miles is still ticking just fine. I wouldn't be surprised to make it to 500 K.